London, 30 April 2019: Chiliz, a leading sports blockchain company, is today proud to announce a strategic partnership with West Ham United. The London-based club is the first to be announced Premier League club to partner with Socios.com, a first-of-its-kind blockchain mobile app for sports fans, joining the likes of European clubs Paris Saint-Germain and Juventus, to offer Fan Tokens to their supporters.

With more than 40 million supporters worldwide and a global, digital fan base that exceeds 5 million across social media platforms, Socios.com will launch the’ Official Fan Token of West Ham United’, offering its global fan base the chance to buy Fan Tokens through a process known as a Fan Token Offering. The launch of the West Ham Fan Token will evolve the club’s global fan engagement strategy and expand their global audience, in particular, bringing millions of fans in the UK and abroad closer to the club.

Fan Tokens are a finite, digital asset that provide the holder a voting right. The club will seek the input and opinion of fans by running exclusive polls on the mobile app, with the Fan Tokens offering the opportunity to vote and share their voice. The Fan Tokens will also give fans access to rewards, exclusive merchandise, games, leaderboards and exceptional experiences too.

West Ham players: Lucas Pérez, Pablo Zabaleta, Chicarito

The club-branded Tokens are utilised on Socios.com but operate on a separate permissioned side chain, where each club become a Node with Proof Of Authority (POA). The platform is fueled by Chiliz’ native cryptocurrency $CHZ, an ERC20 utility token on the Ethereum blockchain. Fans must first purchase $CHZ through a cryptocurrency exchange or directly on the app itself, to subsequently buy Fan Tokens through a process known as a Fan Token Offering.

With clubs’ fans being increasingly global, the need to create a new digital link with fans is a perfect user case of blockchain technology. In a recent CoinMarketCap survey, 46% of users said they would likely buy Fan Tokens from major sports teams.

The West Ham Fan Token will be available to fans at the start of the 2019/2020 season; fans can purchase Fan Tokens directly through their mobile phone via the Socios.com app. Fans will have a greater influence the more Fan Tokens they hold. The fan token will tradeable between fans on the Socios.com app and the value will be based on market demand.

Alexandre Dreyfus, CEO & Founder of Socios.com said, “We’re proud and excited to have West Ham United as our first announced Premier League partner. West Ham United is a digital-first club, and one that can really maximise the potential of Socios.com’s blockchain technology to build a higher level of fan engagement. We’re building a strong eco-system of top-tier clubs from the best and most exciting leagues across the world and are very excited to partner with our first Premier League club, to drive the adoption of blockchain within football and mainstream sport. Working with West Ham United is a big step in realising our goal of building the world’s biggest global football community and marketplace for football fans on blockchain, alongside demonstrating that our platform and cryptocurrency is the trusted technology of the mainstream sports fan. We will be announcing more European partners very soon, with more Premier League clubs set to follow West Ham’s lead in creating the best-in-class fan engagement.”

Karim Virani, Digital & Commercial Director of West Ham United said: “Our fans are what make West Ham United a unique and special club and we’re excited to partner with Socios.com to give fans a new way to engage with the club. We recognise that many fans are now digital users first, with many looking at and using new technologies in their day to day lives. As a result, West Ham United’s presence on Socios.com’s state of the art platform will further give us the ability to interact and get direct feedback in real-time from our global fanbase, which will be important to our future fan engagement strategy. We’re very excited about the possibilities Socios.com offers us to give fans the best experience possible, whether they live within a mile of the stadium or thousands of miles away.”

The West Ham United Official Fan Token will be available at the start of the 2019/2020 season through Socios.com. Fans will need to purchase ChiliZ tokens to exchange into Fan Tokens.

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